The Case for Mars (54 page)

Goldin, of course, has to play to an audience that includes not only the president and Congress, but also White House science advisor Jack Gibbons, a long-time skeptic of human space exploration, and therefore may deem it wise to keep his comments enthusiastic but conservative. A slightly different view of the future was offered by Richard Zare during the August 7 press conference. “It’s very important to this country to really keep its sense of exploration, the pioneering spirit, the same thing that brought our forebears to the New World,” he said. “I think there are new wrlds to explore in space and elsewhere, but we people must be willing to invest in them. When we turn inward, when we forget to make these investments, when we lose that will, such nations perish.”

I couldn’t have said it better.

Mars Direct promises to land a crew on the planet within a decade. The plan makes this possible by using local Martian resources to manufacture fuel for the trip home. The crew hab is the tuna-can shaped object on the left; the conical ERV stands to the right. (Artwork Robert Murray, courtesy Lockheed Martin)

As an added benefit, Mars Direct hardware can be used for missions to the Moon, as
shown
here. (Artwork Robert Murray, courtesy Lockheed Martin)

The Ares heavy lift booster, composed of shuttle-derived propulsion technology, will directly launch crew and equipment to the Red Planet. (Artwork Robert Murray, courtesy Lockheed Martin)

Viking orbiter views of the surface gave clear evidence for
Mars’
watery past, as can be seen in this image of water-carved channels found to the west of the Viking 1 landing site. (Photo courtesy NASA)

Given that Earth and Mars shared similar climates in the distant past, there is a chance that life could have evolved on the Red Planet, in this instance in the form of Martian stromatolites. (Artwork by Michael Carroll)

Mars Global Surveyor
aero-brakes into orbit. (Artwork Michael Carroll, courtesy NASA/JPL)

Two robotic missions to the Red Planet
—Mars Global Surveyor
and
Mars Pathfinder—will
launch late 1996. The Mars Aerial Platform mission could return information invaluable to piloted missions and a Mars Sample Return mission employing locally produced propellants could demonstrate this critical technology.

The Mars Aerial Platform
(MAP)
mission will employ superpressure balloons to fly cameras over the surface of the Red Planet for hundreds of days. (Artwork Robert Murray, courtesy Lockheed Martin)